Power MOSFETs are increasingly popular due to their high input impedance and low gate signal power requirements. Because power MOSFETs are majority carrier devices, they do not suffer from minority carrier storage time effects and therefore offer fast switching speeds. Power MOSFETs also have lower switching losses and simplified gate drive requirements as compared to their insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) counterparts. Silicon (Si) MOSFETs are the most widely-used low-voltage switches and can be found in most power supplies, DC to DC converters, and low voltage motor controllers. The emerging silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs have much higher breakdown voltage and much lower onstate resistance, as compared to Si power MOSFETs. SiC MOSFETs now find use in high-voltage and high-power converter systems, among others.
To predict the performance of systems including power MOSFETs, computer-based simulations may be utilized. Such simulations include a power MOSFET model. When the power MOSFET model is configured with suitable parameters, the model performs in a manner similar to a real-world power MOSFET. Thus, by using a properly parameterized power MOSFET model, a system including one or more power MOSFETs can be designed and tested via computer simulations prior to building the system in hardware.